Pages

Monday, May 10, 2010

Women Who Bike: Melyssa and Adrienne

BIKE NOPA & Bikes And The City have spun out a new collaborative bike series, Women Who Bike.Each Monday and Wednesday we will feature San Francisco women and their bicycles. Check both our blogs for the experiences, stories, and ideas that women who bike the city want to share with you.Let us know your thoughts and leave comments for the featured riders.

+ + + + + + + + + + + Women Who Bike: Melyssa and Adrienne

How would you characterize your bicycling style? assertive, carefree, cautious, competitive, law abiding, slow and steadyM. i ride like i assume that i am invisible to cars. slow and steady wins everytime.A. I ride a bike.

Something basic: how often do you bike and what for?M. everyday for every reason: to work, to fun and to run borriiiiing errands.A. Just about everyday and for just about every reason. It has come to a point where I have to make myself remember I have a car I can use. I don't think any of the people I have met in the last 18 months have ever even seen my car.

What could be done in SF to encourage more women, including teens and younger, to bike?M.i think the same answer you hear often: better bike infrastructure. see ade's answer...A. Where to start.... first off, we need to get rid of this bloody injunction! Enough is enough and it is time to get some infrastructure going! We gotta make it comfortable to ride with kids on the back and not be crowded in by cars. Second, those of us who are out there with our kids and our heels need to get vocal and visible about what we do, too- we need to brag about how easy it was to park the bike right in front of the play date, we need to vocalize our happiness about the discovery that our favorite jeans fit sooooo much better since we started riding to work, we need to talk about how great it feels to not pay that stupid gym bill any more because the riding has been such a great way to get in the exercise....

How many of your best dates/friendships started with biking?M. i've met you guys! hugs!!! it's also just easier to hang around people who already enjoy being on bikes.A. I can think of one or two : ) Making friends on the bike has been great (and making new friends once you get out of college gets harder every year). Best has been finding an easy way to get in fun time with my husband. Even a trip to Costco is fun on the bikes.

I surprise people when I bike by (or with):M. when i wear my work clothes on my commute. them being surprised surprises me back!A. Just being on my bike surprises people, but I get the biggest shock value when people see me tackle hills with my 5 year old on the back of my Dutch bike. They can't believe I am not dead at the top : )My message to women who want to try biking:M. just get on the bike. and when/if you fall, it's ok, not the end of the world, just dust yourself off and get back on that bike and show it who's boss! also, make sure that the bike is comfortable for you. the more comfortable it is, the more intuitive it will be to meld seamlessly into your lifestyle.A. Stop saying you can't and just do it. Even if all you are comfortable with at first is riding in the park, just do it. We are women, not Faberge eggs- we will not break biking down the road to the café.

These two women rock. We have all joined the enthusiasm to go a little further than roaming our city daily, and take it a step aside to experience the Marin Century this summer and we get prepared together, alongside with a few other peeps.Adrienne rides all over the city and is based out of Glen Park and you can find Melyssa anytime adding a dose of sass to the wiggle. Together (+Caryl in LA), and asides our personal blogs, we have a collaborative blog Change Your Life. Ride a Bike!

+ + + + + + + + + +

♥ Gracias Melyssa y Adrienne!!♥

Don't forget to check out BIKE NOPA for more Women Who Bike profiles.Women who bike: Take the Writing Women Back into Bicycling survey online by May 15th. More than 7300 women already have. Survey conducted by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP). See survey here:linkSee Bikes & The CIty past profiles here:Women Who Bike Series

9 comments:

I love this Women Who Bike Series. We couldn't do a series like that in in The Netherlands: why do you bike? They would stare at me and wonder about the weird question. Why not use a bike? Almost everybody uses their bike here to take their childern to school, do groceries, go to work. We have a hype of "bakfietsen" here. And you see more and more bikes decorated with flowers (just for fun I guess). The bike infrastructure is ofcourse very good. When I read your blog I realise we´re lucky.

love this making connections among women from different neighborhoods with biking being a primary link ... when's the party for all the women featured on the two blogs? once we reach 50? 100? street party size?

I agree that socializing with people who already bike is so much easier. I've never owned a car so I find it hard to relate to car issues (parking, expenses, etc). And people who bike don't suggest meeting in places in godforsaken areas like the top of kilimanjaro since I can't ride up there in 5 minutes like a driver could.

I love reading about women not afraid of hills. I agree they're intimidating but I think, 'you pushed out a baby through a sensitive part of your body and you're whining about hills? Come on!'

Susanne/ we are quite the young country in the US and many things went differently than Europe. I love Europe and its infrastructure for living, howver I also love the US and its abrupt approach to traffic, the future, however is looking brighter and there are many of us that do, withouth ever living in Europe, have that mentaliry of the "why not use a bike" :Dthanks for your comments, i bet bakfiets are tremendous fun! i cant wait to get into one of them and have my friends take me around town!

beany/ thanks +great analogies, - actually more facts - right - you are crackin me up!!! pushhhh...those hills, we have an intense love/hate realtionship with them... he heee

tamagosan/ SUPER! the bikey san francisverse strikes again! us bike people have already many things in common without further explanation, that calitexican chica has a wise way to say the smarty things +thanks for your comments as always :D